Justus Lipsius' De Cruce Liber Tres

by senojes 2 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  senojes

  I have recently posted to my blog JesusisJehovah! [http://tinyurl.com/yws8dt] a set of digital photos I took of the woodcuts depicting crucifixion in Lipsius' book De Cruce Liber Tres. I posted the above in reply to De Cruce - Justus Lipsius PDF, but as it may be missed there, I decided to post it again separately. Stephen E. Jones
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  Atlantis

  Senojes:

  Thank you! Good work!

  N.
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  aqwsed12345

  The New World Translation replaces the cross with the word "torture stake" and attempts to justify this in Appendix No. 6. Therefore, in the NWT, Jesus did not die on a cross, and Paul's words are rendered: "But may I never boast, except in the torture stake of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world has been put to death with regard to me and I with regard to the world." (Gal 6:14)

  Jehovah's Witnesses are not, of course, "enemies of Christ's cross" (Phil 3:18), since they do not deny Jesus' death and its significance, but believe that the instrument of execution had a different shape from the traditional concept. The shape of the execution tool naturally has no theological significance. It's not a subject worth dwelling on. Instead, it is significant that the organization manipulates its readers for the sake of its "own truth." This time with a picture.

  The article in the Appendix portrays the cross as a pagan symbol (People used the equal-armed cross, always as a symbol of cardinal directions, seasons, sun-disc, space, and time, and never marked it as an execution tool) and cites four specialist books to claim that Jesus died nailed to a vertical pole. Why is this so important to the Society? Because it "does not want to add anything to God's written word."

  Before mentioning the picture, it cites the Lewis-Short Latin dictionary about the meaning of the Latin word crux: "A single stake for impalement of a criminal was called in Latin crux simʹplex. One such instrument of torture is illustrated by Justus Lipsius (1547-1606) in his book De cruce libri tres, Antwerp, 1629, p. 19, which we here present."

  It must be acknowledged that the Society does not specifically claim that Lipsius depicted Jesus' crucifixion with this picture. Yet it suggests this in various ways. First, it fits into its own line of reasoning: the whole point 6 of the Appendix is meant to prove that Jesus died on such a stake. Secondly, the picture almost completely fills page 418, so in the minds of Witnesses and interested readers, the topic and picture are guaranteed to be linked. Thirdly, the Society plucked only one picture from Lipsius's book, omitting what the author wrote about the subject and specifically about Jesus' agonizing death. Some have researched this rare book and had its Latin text translated. As it turned out, the picture presented in the Appendix is indeed in Lipsius' book but on page 647 and depicts a medieval criminal's execution. According to the Society, Lipsius' picture depicts the ancient (contemporary with Jesus) crux simplex discussed in the Lewis-Short Latin dictionary ("It depicts such a torture device..."). Secondly, Jesus' name does not even appear on this page! Thirdly, Lipsius wrote and depicted Jesus' execution in his book. The Society did not mention this because it would reveal that the author did not agree with it.

  
  

  Page 661 indeed talks about Jesus and depicts Jesus on a cross, sharing the reflections of early Church Fathers and Lipsius on the cross. Here's an excerpt from Lipsius' commentary: "The Lord's cross had four pieces of wood: the vertical column, the crossbeam, a piece placed below [i.e., to sit on], and the piece above with the inscription. This [report] was also passed on to Irenaeus: "The structure of the cross had five ends: two horizontal, two vertical, and one in the middle where the nailed person rested." Lipsius then cites reflections on the cross by other 2nd to 4th-century writers (Tertullian, Augustine, etc.), finally noting: "When someone adores God with outstretched arms and a pure heart, they form the Cross."

  As for the word "cross" itself, its Greek origin is stauros. In classical Greek, it indeed originally meant an upright pole, stake, and the like. Still, I cannot imagine Jesus setting out for Golgotha with a minimum three and a half-meter telephone pole on his back, and I consider it physically impossible that his body would not have fallen off such a pole if only two nails held it.

  Two Bible passages, however, prove that the wood on which Jesus was executed could have been T-shaped or Latin cross-shaped. First, the three-language tablet (titulus) justifying the punishment, surely not just a small slip of paper, was nailed above Jesus' head (Mt 27:37), not over his hands, as the Society usually depicts. Secondly, Jesus' hands were pierced with nails, at least two (Jn 20:25), not just one, as the Society usually depicts. Which do you think better matches the biblical description?

  Regarding the ancient Near Eastern practice of hanging on a pillar, the already executed, i.e., dead criminals were displayed this way as a deterrent. The Roman crux, however, was both an execution and a torture device, where the tied or nailed person could suffer for days. The leg was also usually broken after a while (cf. Jn 19:31-33) so that the condemned could not repeatedly straighten up to take deep breaths. Thus the condemned - if not bled to death - usually died of suffocation. With all this in mind, Pilate's astonishment that Jesus died after only about six hours is understandable (cf. Mk 15:45). Of course, there was another reason for this (see Jn 10:17-18).

  The existence of the upper, horizontal crossbeam is also proven by archaeology. The Society should have known about these relatively old and well-known finds, just like the authors of the books it cites. Pompeii and Herculaneum were covered with lava and ash in AD 79. In one of the houses in Herculaneum, in 1938, they found a small home altar with a Latin wooden cross embedded in the wall.

  In Rome, on the Palatine Hill, in the area of the imperial court's slave quarters (paedagogium), 1st-2nd century graffiti were found while digging in 1857. One of the drawings depicts a man pointing to a donkey-headed, crucified human figure. The accompanying text is: “ALE XAMENOS SEBETE THEON” ("Alexamenos worships [his] God"). Of course, there is no ancient deity with a donkey's head who would have died on the cross in shameful agony, who anyone would have worshiped or whose worship anyone would have mocked. Only a Christian's faith could have been regarded by contemporaries as such great foolishness (cf. 1 Cor 1:18-25).
  

  Finally, it should be noted that the cross could not have entered Christianity from the symbol system of pagan religions either. Their crosses were mostly equilateral (+, with only the Egyptian ankh being an exception), and they were always associated with complex, mystical philosophy, and never referred to execution or torture devices. The cross represents only this shameful method of execution, and this is why it could only become one of the most important symbols for Christians centuries later when this method was no longer used.